FP2000: What Are Cascading Style Sheets?

Cascading style sheets (CSS) allow Web site authors more control over the appearance and presentation of their Web pages. They extend the ability to precisely specify the location and appearance of elements on a page and create special effects. Cascading style sheets contain specific code that the browser interprets and applies to the Web page and Web page elements.

There are three types of cascading style sheets:

• External Style Sheets
• Embedded Style Sheets
• Inline Style Sheets

External Style Sheets

You can use an external style sheet when you want to apply the same style consistently throughout your Web site. Typically, an external style sheet uses the .css file extension (for example, Mystyle.css). You can edit the .css file in any text editor, such as Notepad.

Embedded Style Sheets

You can use an embedded style sheet when you want to define styles only for the open page in Microsoft FrontPage.

Inline Style Sheets

You can use inline style sheet properties when you want to define styles for individual elements of a page.

For additional information about cascading style sheets, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: